In September 2025, Le Temps included Mehra Rimer in its annual selection of the 100 most influential people in French-speaking Switzerland, recognizing her sustained commitment to Palestinian and Israeli grassroots initiatives working for dignity, equality, and self-determination.
Mehra later joined the other honorees at a ceremony in Lausanne. While the recognition was personal, its significance extended far beyond one individual. It offered an opportunity to bring greater public visibility to an entire community of Palestinians and Israelis whose courage and persistence too often remain absent from mainstream accounts of the conflict.
For B8 of Hope, this is why such moments matter. Every time the work of peacebuilders enters the public conversation, it challenges the assumption that only extremists, politicians, and armed actors shape the future. It reminds a wider audience that another community exists—and that its members are working every day to make hope tangible.
Amira Mohammed and Evelyn Uzan of Unapologetic: The Third Narrative, an initiative supported by B8 of Hope, engaged more than 130 students at Institut Le Rosey, Institut Sainte-Marcelline, and the International School of Geneva in open and challenging conversations about identity, narrative, and polarization.
At Institut Le Rosey, bereaved Israeli and Palestinian fathers Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin shared how they chose reconciliation over revenge—and invited students to consider what peace demands of us.
Visiting Washington, DC in 2024, Mehra Rimer carried the work of B8 of Hope’s grantees into conversations with policymakers and peacebuilding institutions—and saw ideas developed in Geneva reach the halls of power.